Bobby Okinaka
@bokinakaBobby mora na ilha japonesa de Shikoku, onde é membro de um programa do governo local para revitalizar o campo. Seus projetos são um programa de história oral da cidade de Niyodogawa e testes para melhorar a saúde do solo usando lascas de madeira, microorganismos e composto. Antes de se mudar para o campo, morou em Tóquio por 12 anos. Ele é originalmente de Los Angeles, CA. Ele escreve sobre a vida no Japão em seu blog: www.slowinjapan.com .
Atualizado em julho de 2021
Stories from This Author
Um Nikkei no Japão
9 de Agosto de 2021 • Bobby Okinaka
Sou um expatriado americano que mora no Japão há 12 anos. Primeiro, se você ainda não sabe, expatriado é alguém que mora e trabalha em outro país. Os expatriados não são necessariamente imigrantes, mas muitos mergulharam fundo e adotaram o país de sua escolha em tudo, exceto no status de cidadania. Divulgação completa, esta é a quarta vez que moro no Japão. Nasci aqui em uma base militar americana, filho de pai Sansei e mãe japonesa. Saímos logo depois. Voltei …
I called my grandmother "Oba-chan"
23 de Janeiro de 2009 • Bobby Okinaka
I called my grandmother "Oba-chan." It is the Japanese word for "grandmother." She was born somewhere in California just before the First World War. Her parents arrived in America by a ship from Japan. My brother remembers her once showing a sepia-toned photo of a Japanese man wearing an American soldier's uniform of that time period. Was he drafted into the U.S. Army for the war? We'll never know the answer to that question because Oba-chan isn't around to answer …
Descubra Nikkei no Brasil - Comemorando o Centenário da Imigração Japonesa
16 de Outubro de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
O ano de 2008 marca o centenário da imigração japonesa ao Brasil. No dia 18 de junho de 1908, 793 pessoas a bordo do Kasato-maru chegaram ao porto de Santos para começar uma nova vida numa nova terra. Para os atuais 1.5 milhão de brasileiros de descendência japonesa, o Kasato-maru é o seu Mayflower e um símbolo de sua história e identidade. O centenário foi comemorado no Brasil e no Japão. No Brasil, a cultura japonesa foi literalmente desfilada pelas …
My Nisei Week, Our Nisei Week
28 de Agosto de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Saturday, August 16On Saturday morning I arrived early at the Japanese American National Museum. Yonezawa-san was already there. He is the president of the Miyagi Kenjinkai. Miyagi Prefecture is famous throughout Japan for the Tanabata Festival in Sendai. On the seventh day of the seventh month, the streets of Sendai are lined with colorful decorations called fukinagashi. Yonezawa-san and the Miyagi Kenjinkai made five fukinagashi that we were going to use to decorate the central hall of the museum. The …
Nikkei Parents’ Day
13 de Agosto de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Nikkei in Los Angeles recognized Parents’ Day on July 27 with a ceremony honoring the 2008 Parents of the Year at the George and Sakaye Aratani Japan America Theatre in Little Tokyo. This year the honor was bestowed upon two families, Kaname and Kuriyo Inaba of Northridge and Haruo and Takako Yamashiro of Gardena. Both families were recognized not only for being role models as parents but for their commitment to community service as well. Local children participated in the …
La Vida Sake: Supporters sip for the Little Tokyo Service Center
28 de Maio de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Normally automobiles and alcoholic beverages don’t mix, but at the “La Vida Sake” fundraiser event, the cars were parked and the sake helped raise money for the Little Tokyo Service Center. “La Vida Sake” was a sake and food tasting event held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA on May 22, 2008. DID YOU KNOW? In Japan, the word “sake” refers to all types of alcoholic beverages. The correct term for what we know as “sake” is …
Their Pride - Filmmaker documents the story of Black Japanese in Georgia
15 de Maio de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Yohei Suzuki is a 30-year old documentary filmmaker based in New York, NY. In 2006, he produced and directed Our Pride: The Spirits of Black Japanese in Georgia, a documentary about families where the father is Black and the mother is Japanese and their children are both. The story touches upon bi-racial identity in a culture that is almost exclusively Black; a perspective that has rarely been touched before. The documentary has screened at several film festivals including the Asian …
Glenn Kaino - Interview with an Artist
6 de Abril de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Glenn Kaino (b. 1972) is one of the artists whose work is on display in the One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum (the exhibition runs until May 4, 2008). His installation entitled “Graft” features two stuffed animals, one a salmon masquerading in shark skin, the other a pig cloaked in a cow’s hide. Simply wearing a mask is not a strong enough metaphor for social identity; here Kaino demonstrates the sometimes …
The Okinawan Wives Club
22 de Fevereiro de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
A few years ago, I came up with an idea to make a documentary about overseas Okinawan communities. I wanted to show that Okinawans left their island home for places all over the globe, but no matter where they went, the migrants took their culture and traditions with them. I created a plan to visit places where Okinawans settled in Peru, Hawaii, Los Angeles, CA and Jacksonville, NC. That’s right, a tiny little place called Jacksonville. For my documentary, I …
Memories of New Year's Celebrations
2 de Janeiro de 2008 • Bobby Okinaka
Happy New Year! What makes this holiday so special is the chance to start over again. But before looking forward, it’s nice to take a quick look back. I thought about how I spent New Year’s in the past. As a kid, I would be allowed to stay up late and our family would watch the countdown to midnight on television. I don’t recall doing anything more special than that. Then, when I was 14, our family moved to Japan. …
